


Deus Ex Machina

by carzla



Series: Deus Ex Machina [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Background Relationships, Episode: s10e23 My Brother's Keeper, Family, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:58:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4054165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carzla/pseuds/carzla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Darkness had been unleashed, and the Winchesters were up shit creek without a paddle. Well, make that without a boat and heading towards a sheer drop. Fortunately for them, someone finally decided that it was about time He took an interest in Earth again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deus Ex Machina

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea came to me shortly after I finished watching the S10 finale. Because I was left mostly going, "???" and I really felt like a deus ex machina was the only thing that made sense to me. Hence this was born, and hence the very creative title. xD" This was sort of meant to be crack... but I don't think it really turned out that way...
> 
> Anyway, Destiel isn't the main focus in this, and I don't really consider it pre-slash (since I feel that both parties love each other, they just don't know the other party feels that way)... in any case, I tagged it with the ship tag just to not mislead people to think this is completely Gen.
> 
> [EDIT: 5/6/2015 UTC +08:00 19:55] So I reread this and picked out some mistakes and a missing word. They've been fixed now!

When the Mark was removed, when the Darkness broke free, the universe trembled. In an adjacent timeline, a man – a being – froze. After a few seconds, He cursed.

If one were to translate it into English, it would’ve said:

“Well, _fuck_.”

* * *

The Darkness was a dense and cloying thing. Dean couldn’t see worth a damn as they became engulfed in it, although he was still gunning the pedal for all it was worth. He also felt like it was becoming difficult to breathe, and he wasn’t sure if that was because the Darkness was actually suffocating him or he was experiencing a panic attack. Because man, they were well and truly fucked this time. The only people – or beings – who knew exactly what this primordial entity they’d unleashed could do were either dead ( _Good going, Dean Winchester. Killing Death when he was the only available source of information_ ) or unavailable (see: God, Michael and Lucifer). 

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, blinding in the Darkness. Dean thought he saw the Darkness flinch back slightly, and he felt like it had gotten a tad easier to breathe. Then in a blink, he found himself and Sam back in the bunker.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

“Not quite,” a voice said from behind them.

Both he and Sam whirled around. He felt his jaw drop, and though he was trying to speak, no sound came out. Finally, it was Sam who regained his voice first.

_“Chuck?!”_

“Yes, and no,” the prophet (was he still a prophet?) said, a strange, uncharacteristically enigmatic smile on his face.

Then Chuck narrowed his eyes at Dean for a second, then reached out a hand to touch Dean on the shoulder. When Chuck drew his hand away, a black mist followed, but the mist seemed to be trying its best to cling on to Dean. Chuck gestured sharply with his fingers, and then the mist was dragged into his palm. The not-prophet clenched his hand into a fist, and the black mist disappeared in a flash of light.

Momentarily derailed from his original train of thought by this turn of events, Dean could only ask, “What was that?”

“That was a part of the Darkness. It probably clung tighter to you since it recognized you as the last bearer of the Mark,” Chuck replied.

Then suddenly, it clicked. Dean knew exactly what, or _who_ Chuck really was, and he found his ability to properly react. So he did what he wanted to do if he ever met God.

Dean took a step forward and punched Chuck, or God (whatever), in the friggin’ face.

“What. The. Fuck. You! You’re God, and you didn’t think to let _anyone_ know?”

Despite Chuck moving with the blow, Dean knew that the punch had only gone through because Chuck had allowed it. Not to mention the fact that his hand _wasn’t_ broken. (He’d punched Cas as an angel before, when he wasn’t powered by the Mark, and it had _hurt._ ) Still, it felt good to do that. He was almost sure that he’d hear Sam hiss at him to tell him to calm down. But no, that didn’t happen. The divine had sort of lost its shine with _both_ Winchesters after all these years.

Not that Dean had had a good impression of them in the first place.

“What the hell were you doing back then? During the Apocalypse?” Sam demanded, sounding like he might just punch Chuck himself if the answer wasn’t acceptable. Dean approved. “Then we thought you were _dead._ What were you doing all this time?”

Chuck didn’t seem the least bit perturbed, though maybe, _maybe_ he looked a little sheepish. But compared to their last recollection of the not-prophet, he was exuding so much confidence he might as well be a different person altogether.

Oh wait, he kinda _was._

“I was observing all of you back then. Free will and all that. I did bestow that to my creations for a reason. Then after the Apocalypse didn’t come to pass, well… I thought I was finally done. So I spent some time in a couple of alternate universes, and then I came back to watch that musical. It was pretty good, wasn’t it?”

Dean didn’t know what he even wanted to say to that. Because what. Just _what even._ Luckily, Sam found the words.

“Let me get this straight. You just _watched it all happen_. Even when it looked like Lucifer and Michael were going to manage to have their prize fight after all, you continued to watch. Then you took off even when there was a _civil war up in Heaven_ because all the angels have major _daddy issues_ thanks to you, looked away when the Leviathans were set loose from Purgatory, let your Scribe kick all the angels down to Earth in revenge, only for those angels to use Earth as a battlefield until we managed to get them back upstairs again, then you let us get caught up with the Mark of Cain and only, _only_ when we unleashed this stupid Darkness and killed Death… _Then you show up?”_

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dean found a part of him marvelling that this had _got to be_ the most epic bitchface he’d ever seen Sam put on in the long history of Sam’s legendary bitchfaces. Plus, it was directed towards God. It was, honestly, pretty badass.

“Death isn’t actually dead. It’s kind of ironic, but the phoenix metaphor? That’s more of Death’s schtick-”

“Look, we don’t give a crap about that, but good, he’s not dead. Will you just explain yourself?” Dean interjected, because of all things, Chuck had to go fixate on _that?_

“I kept an eye on things, alright? I also thought that the Host had gotten the message… and well, if they were learning free will for the first time, they were allowed to make some mistakes. Now Heaven’s almost back up to full strength, and they did it on their own!”

“And the Mark?” Sam pressed, still looking very unimpressed. “If you kept an eye on things, then you would’ve known about it. Why did it take so long for someone who knew about its true nature to tell us anything about it?”

“I may have been a bit distracted. Time passes differently in some other universes. I also honestly believed that Dean would’ve handled it.”

“You mean, you agreed with Death’s plan to send Dean to outer space or something?” Sam asked disbelievingly.

Chuck sighed. “ _No._ I expected Dean to have found his Colette, like Cain did. But then I underestimated the power of denial that Dean possesses.”

“What? Colette? All this “power of love” thing? Really?” Dean exclaimed. “You realize that Cain tried, right? And he failed in the end. I had to kill him to stop him when he decided to exterminate his bloodline.”

He was incredulous. Did Chuck, who was God, really believe that Dean would find his equivalent of Cain’s Colette, fall in love, and then have a long and peaceful spell that would hopefully last forever? And it would have to be forever because with the Mark on his arm, Dean wouldn’t have been able to die. Not without worse consequences. That plus the fact that Dean had never really thought about bringing a woman into the hunting life, not since Cassie. Then after his disastrous attempt at finding normalcy with Lisa… yeah, getting a Colette was out of the question for him.

“Cain didn’t have the fortune to meet someone who could stay with him forever.”

That was a loaded statement if Dean had ever heard one. If Chuck had really been keeping an eye on things, then this sounded like he’d heard Dean’s conversation with Cas just a day ago. From the sudden hard expression on Chuck’s face, Dean was a hundred percent sure that Chuck knew exactly what went down with Cas. Meaning that Castiel’s dad had seen Cas swearing to stick by Dean for all of eternity, and how did Dean repay that lov- _loyalty_? He’d gone and beat up his friend, and almost killed him with his own angel blade.

Why hadn’t Chuck smote him yet?

“You’re still smote-free, Dean, because my non-interference clause really did cause your family a lot of grief and you get a couple of free passes because of that. But mostly, it’s because Castiel wouldn’t be too happy to find you dead.”

…of course Chuck could read minds. Damn it.

“Why would you even think of smiting Dean? And what does Cas have anything to do with it?” Sam asked, completely bewildered by what was, to him, a non-sequitur from Chuck.

“Castiel didn’t tell you, but he did catch up to Dean and tried to talk him down before Dean disappeared from the bunker. Then he all but confessed his undying love to your brother… only for your brother to beat him bloody, and almost kill him with his own angel blade. Then he threatened to not miss his mark if Castiel came after him.”

There was a long silence after Chuck’s statement, which had been accompanied by a very steely glare directed at Dean all the while. So yes, God wasn’t smiting him, but God was definitely _not happy_ about one of his sons, possibly His _favorite son_ since Cas was the only angel to get multiple resurrections, getting beaten up. Dean didn’t know how to respond, and Sam looked like he was trying to process what he’d just heard, but was having difficulty in doing that quickly. Dean didn’t blame Sammy. It was a pretty big thing that was just dropped into Sam’s lap.

Said silence was only broken when Chuck angled his head to the side, as if listening to something only he could hear, and then he snapped his fingers. In the next moment, Castiel appeared before them. But something was very wrong with the Cas that they saw.

Castiel’s angel blade was raised in attack, blood dripping from its length. He was partly hunched over and his body jerked spasmodically, as if he couldn’t quite control it, and his face… There was blood on his face, and they looked like they were oozing out from his eyes, and his lips were pulled back in a feral snarl. He didn’t look like he recognized any of them. What… what in the world had happened to him?

“Cas?” Dean said, in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

That snapped Cas’s eyes to him, but there was no recognition in them. Cas took a step forward, but then stopped short, as if there was something preventing him from moving. He growled. It was an inhuman sound.

“This is what happened after you left Castiel alone with Rowena, Samuel,” Chuck said, and this time, his steely, disapproving glare was turned on to Sam.

Sam took a small step backwards.

“Did you really think she was just working out how to remove the Mark of Cain?”

“You left Cas with Rowena? _Alone?_ ”

Sam ducked his head, looking smaller despite his height. “I thought Cas could handle her…”

“He might have been able,” Chuck agreed. Then just as smoothly, he added, “If Castiel hadn’t still been healing from a Mark-powered beating, that is.”

Dean wondered if anyone, if any of the prophets, had thought that it would be a good idea to mention that God had an uncanny ability to guilt-trip anyone as easy as breathing.

Without waiting for a response, Chuck stepped closer to Cas and reached out a hand to touch him. A ripple of light seemed to transfer from Chuck to Cas and then Cas was back to normal. Or at least, he looked normal. The angel stood still for a moment, before straightening up and lowering his angel blade slowly, looking at it with a bemused expression. Like he had no idea why he was even armed in the first place. Then Cas went stock still, before he whipped around to look at Chuck.

“Father…”

“Hello, Castiel.”

Then, Castiel surprised all of them by staring at Chuck for a few moments more, before resolutely turning away to look at Dean instead. Cas slid his angel blade back into his sleeve, stepped closer to Dean and then reached out a hand to lift his right arm up. He inspected the crook of Dean’s elbow where the Mark of Cain used to be, as if he’d had to make sure with his own eyes that the Mark was truly gone.

Over Cas’s shoulder, Dean noticed Chuck eyeing him, as if saying, _“See? This is what I meant about your Colette.”_ The rest of him was more preoccupied with Castiel’s proximity. But then personal space had kind of ceased to be a thing between them. Although the last time he’d been this close to Cas… Well, it wasn’t a good memory.

“It’s gone, Cas,” he said instead, trying not to squirm at Cas’s close scrutiny. His blue eyes were now roaming all over Dean. It felt like Cas was looking into his soul, and well, that was probably true.

“Good,” Cas stated, his blue eyes boring into Dean’s.

Perhaps it was all that talk earlier about finding his Colette… but well, it had been awhile since he felt like he was drowning in Castiel’s blue, blue gaze.

Then there was the sound of Sam awkwardly clearing his throat, and that broke the staring going on between him and Cas. Dean felt his face grow hot, and prayed that he wasn’t actually blushing. It was embarrassing enough that he and Cas had gone into one of their long bouts of intense eye contact… in front of who was essentially Castiel’s dad. He did _not_ need to be blushing on top of that.

“Hey, Cas… Good to see you’re okay now,” Sam said.

“Was I not… Oh. Rowena.”

“Sorry about that Cas. I… I really thought you’d be fine.”

“I’m going to step in now and say that maybe you boys can wait a little longer for all that heart-to-heart talk,” Chuck said. “We need to do something about the Darkness.”

“Well, Death said the last time the Darkness was out and about, you and the four archangels beat it back. Well, we don’t have the archangels around now,” Dean said.

“Which is why I’m planning to bring them back.”

“Even _Lucifer?_ ” Sam asked, shock and even a slight bit of fear present in his voice.

“Lucifer was quite crucial in locking the Darkness away last time,” Chuck stated plainly. “I need him around.”

Well, that was an optimistic way of looking at things. Dean was very doubtful about Lucifer working on the same side as the Heavenly Host. All the angels had daddy issues and Lucifer probably took the crown. He was even a little skeptical about whether _Michael_ would be all for joining in with Daddy Dearest. If he and Michael really shared some similarities, perhaps the eldest archangel would’ve finally decided to stop following his father’s orders blindly like a good little soldier.

“So we have Michael and Lucifer in the Cage. Will that be enough?” Sam asked, appearing to choose not to think too hard about having to meet the Devil again.

“Wait,” Dean interjected, abruptly remember that the last time he’d seen Lucifer, Lucifer had been wearing Sam. “Are you going to stuff Lucifer back into Sam again? Because that is _not_ happening, I do not care what you say.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll be… tweaking the rules a little. Lucifer and Michael are getting their own newly created vessels. There isn’t really any more use for True Vessels for them now. I’ll also release Adam back to Heaven. Poor kid deserves it, and a medal, for having to deal with my eldest two sons for centuries.”

Chuck’s statement made Sam’s face pale, and Dean knew that Sam was recalling his own stint in the Cage before getting pulled out. Sam probably took most of the heat when he was still down there, but after he was gone… Dean shuddered to think what had happened to Adam all these years, and once again, felt regret over the fact that he hadn’t been able to save the kid when Death pulled out Sam’s soul. Winchesters always did have a long list of regrets, and most of them were with regards to family.

“Yeah, you do that,” Dean said. “So, are just two archangels enough? Because you probably know the other two are dead.”

“I’ve brought back angels from the dead. It’s a little more use of my powers, but bringing back Raphael and Gabriel is of no issue. I need all four of them for this to work out properly. Can’t risk not properly locking the Darkness away.”

At the mention of Raphael’s name, Cas tensed up, and since the angel was still facing away from Chuck, Dean could see his expression go through some minute acrobatics, as if Cas was trying to figure out how to feel about that. Of all the archangels, Cas probably had the most issues with Raphael, seeing as they’d fought against each other in Heaven’s civil war, and then Cas had exploded Raphael when he was high on Purgatory souls.

“Do not worry about Raphael, Castiel. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Chuck reassured, having clearly caught Cas’s reaction.

Though Cas continued to give Chuck the silent treatment, Dean did see his shoulders relax a bit, probably glad for that reassurance. Even if Cas was still pissed at his father. Dean felt strangely proud of him for still maintaining his steadfast ignoring of Chuck.

Chuck seemed to understand that getting Cas to talk to him right now was a bit of a lost cause. So despite his benign smile dimming a little in the face of Castiel’s silent treatment, Chuck moved on to more practical things.

“Well then, I suppose I should retrieve Michael and Lucifer. If you would give me a moment.”

Surprisingly, reopening the Cage this time around was a lot less dramatic than any of the previous times. There wasn’t any violent shaking or bright lights, unlike when Sam had inadvertently set Lucifer free way back then. There also wasn’t any yawning pit opening up in the ground like back in Stull Cemetery. But perhaps this was because they weren’t physically present at Ground Zero this time.

Chuck had teleported himself away, and a few moments later, he had returned to the bunker with two archangels in tow. Two archangels who looked a little bewildered by their change in surroundings. Nevertheless, the sight of Lucifer and Michael (the latter was now looking like he did when he’d possessed a younger John Winchester, which was _weird_ ) still brought Dean’s hackles up.

However, neither archangel spared a glance at the other three occupants of the room. Instead, once they’d reoriented themselves, they both stared at Chuck and realization dawned on them instantly.

“So you’ve finally decided to return, haven’t you, Father?” Lucifer spoke first, his voice clipped and icy.

“And you’ve only released us because you need our help to fight against the Darkness. Isn’t that right, Father?” Michael added, his voice flat.

Well now, this was… not entirely unexpected, but Dean wasn’t really expecting Michael to really be so disillusioned. Also, was it just his imagination or was Michael actually positioning himself such that he looked to be subtly shielding Lucifer? Huh. Will wonders ever cease?

“We’ll talk about this later,” Chuck replied, his voice taking on a sudden steely quality that was never present when Dean had thought he was just Chuck the Prophet. It wasn’t like Dean didn’t believe the guy was actually God, but he really only saw it _now._

Still, it seemed like God wasn’t very good at handling his children.

“I still need to bring back Raphael and Gabriel,” Chuck continued. “And they probably will have issues that we will all need to talk about at length. But it will all be done _later_.”

“Of course, Father,” both archangels chorused, but it was said so dryly, the Sahara seemed like an ocean in comparison.

Daddy issues. Lots of daddy issues.

From what Dean could see of Chuck’s profile, Chuck looked like he wanted to sigh but decided against it. Instead of disappearing to retrieve, or resurrect in this case, the last two archangels, Chuck stayed where they were this time. Perhaps he knew the potential risk of leaving Michael and Lucifer near their True Vessels, even when the Apocalypse was no longer on track.

With another snap of his fingers (and Dean figured that that was where Gabriel got it from, and actually, the same could be said for Cas _and_ Lucifer), the room had two more occupants. Raphael and Gabriel looked even more disoriented than Michael and Lucifer had been, but probably because they’d gone from being dead to not-dead. Then, like the other two archangels, once they’d gotten their bearings, their attention snapped to Chuck and stayed there.

For a few moments, there was silence. Then Raphael strode forward… and slapped Chuck across the face.

Dean gawked, mouth actually hanging open in shock. He was also fairly certain that Sam was doing the same. Because. What?

The stunned silence was only broken a few beats later by Lucifer. Lucifer who was slow clapping, and had his eyebrows raised. On him, that very likely meant that he was suitably impressed by what Raphael had just done.

“That was unexpected,” Lucifer commented. “But it was _beautiful._ ”

That in turn prompted Gabriel to wolf-whistle. “Wow, didn’t think you had it in you to give one to dear ol’ Dad, bro. Color me impressed!”

Raphael sniffed, before walking back to take her (his? This was confusing, but it was female-vessel-Raphael) place between Lucifer and Gabriel. And wait, when did Gabriel move over? In any case, the four archangels were all standing as a united front, and giving Chuck the stink eye. The combined effect was pretty damn scary in Dean’s opinion.

Just before Gabriel and Raphael appeared, Cas had turned around to face Chuck. Dean had rather thought it was because Cas would still rather not have his back to Raphael, despite Chuck’s reassurances. So now, Dean could see that Cas had straightened up, and had planted himself to almost partly shield Dean and Sam from the four archangels. It was kind of sweet.

“Well,” Chuck said with a note of resignation in his voice. “I suppose I deserve that.”

“Damn straight you did, Dad,” Gabriel interrupted. His expression was all sorts of pissed off, but Dean could see the hurt the youngest archangel was trying to mask.

“As I told Michael and Lucifer, we will talk. We will _all_ have a talk. Later. There are more pressing matters right now.”

“Sure Dad, whatever you say,” Gabriel replied with an undisguised roll of his eyes, clearly not believing a word about “later” that Chuck had said.

“Gabriel,” Lucifer suddenly called, his voice pitched gentler than Dean had ever heard it.

Lucifer waited for Gabriel to acknowledge him. Gabriel did, turning slightly to look at his elder brother, but there was a tense set to Gabriel’s shoulders that made Dean think that if he could actually see angel wings, Gabriel’s would be poised for flight. On the other hand, Lucifer’s posture had lost the straight-backed, full-of-confidence stance he’d been wearing since Chuck had brought him and Michael back. It was strange to see the Devil actually look uncertain, and dare he say it, _nervous_.

“Yeah, Lucifer?”

“I… I would like to…”

Lucifer straightened abruptly, like he’d been poked in the back somewhere. When the archangel turned his head slightly to glare at Michael, Dean supposed it _was_ the case. Just that the prodding had come from the metaphysical plane where humans couldn’t perceive. Michael just tilted his head towards Gabriel and gave Lucifer a Look. It was at this moment that the two archangels truly looked like the brothers they were supposed to be.

“Lucifer-”

“No, Father,” Michael interjected. “Do not interrupt us. If you want us to be able to lock away the Darkness successfully again, we will need to work together. We need to trust each other as we did in the past. We will settle our… _issues_ with you later, Father, but not this. _This_ cannot wait.”

Dean was pretty sure he was witnessing something quite momentous. As much as the angels in Heaven now weren’t following any script God had written, and had more or less gotten the idea of free will, it was still entirely different to see the _archangels_ doing it. Mostly because they’d been either dead or very unavailable when the rest of the Host learnt their lesson regarding free will.  

Perhaps bolstered by Michael’s words, Lucifer appeared to relax a little even though his expression remained serious and sincere. Dean was rather sure he knew where this was going, and a quick glance at Sam showed that his brother was thinking the same. There was even the beginnings of a smile playing at the edges of Sam’s lips, and Dean was sure that had this been a different family, a non-celestial family, his gigantic dork of a brother would be wearing heart eyes at the sight of a family taking steps to making up with each other.

“Gabriel, I didn’t want to kill you, and I shouldn’t have. It may be too late, but I’m sorry.”

Gabriel was preternaturally still for a long moment. Then in a blink of an eye, he was giving Lucifer a bear hug and Dean could hear a muffled, “You’re still a big bag of dicks, Luci. But I love you too.”

Then there was a little flurry of wingbeats, and Dean found himself witnessing a group hug amongst four beings who were supposed to be God’s most terrifying generals. At the moment though, they really looked like a bunch of kids, despite the ages of their vessels.

Dean glanced at Cas, wondering what the only other angel in the room thought of this development. Cas was watching the four archangels with a tiny but fond smile on his face, and Dean wondered when was the last time any angel had seen the Big Four in harmonious accord. For the matter, he highly doubted any angel had witnessed the archangels being anything but imposing and unapproachable, if the way angels had been wired was an indication.

“Their wings are really beautiful,” Cas suddenly murmured, glancing at Dean as he did so. “It has been a very long time since I’ve seen and felt this level of harmony from the archangels. I can even feel it resonating up to the rest of the Host. This feels… right, and heart-warming, even though angels do not technically have hearts.”

Dean found his lips quirking upwards of their own accord. “Well, Cas, I don’t know about that. I think you at least, have a heart.”

Sam snorted slightly, and Dean could almost have sworn it sounded like “Colette”. He shot a glare that screamed “Shut up!” at his brother, not wanting to draw attention to Sam, if Cas hadn’t noticed already.

Cas looked like he had something to say to Dean’s words, but he was cut short by another flurry of wingbeats. When they both glanced over at the archangels, they had broken off the group hug and were now all clad in medieval armor that seemed to give off their own ethereal glow. The four archangels truly looked as imposing and formidable as they were said to be.

“We are ready, Father,” Michael stated, his voice every inch the Commander of Heaven he was said to be.

This drew Dean’s attention back to Chuck, and really it was kind of a miracle in itself that he could forget that God was actually in the bunker with them. It was then when he noticed that Chuck’s outfit had changed as well. The modern suit he had been wearing had morphed into armor, complete with a simple, gold diadem on his head that didn’t look incongruous but rather fit well with the overall look. This was honestly the moment when Chuck really did look like God.

They all appeared ready to leave at any moment, and Dean realized he didn’t actually know what the plan really was. Were they supposed to leave it all to God and the four archangels? It certainly looked like that was the case, but one could never be too sure.

“So. Is that all? Are you guys going to take care of it?” Dean asked.

“Dean, you, Sam and Castiel have done enough to warrant a rest,” Chuck said solemnly. “We will handle the Darkness.”

Then in the space of a heartbeat, Chuck and the four archangels disappeared.

“Well then,” Sam said after a beat. “I’ll get to tidying up the bunker a bit. Why don’t you and Cas get to talking?”

“Why do Dean and I need to talk?” Cas asked.

Castiel’s brows were scrunched up and his head was tilted, all classic Cas signs that he didn’t understand what was going on.

“Sam,” Dean started in a warning tone.

“That’s a good idea isn’t it? I mean, we haven’t really been communicating all that much, and I’ll get my turn with Dean soon enough. But we’ll probably take ages, so you know, you should do the honors and go first, Cas. Right? _Right._ See you later!”

Then Sam, the stinking traitor, beat a hasty retreat down the corridors of the bunker.

“Dean?”

Dean took a deep breath. Stinking traitor that Sam may be, he still had a point. And if God and the archangels were taking care of the latest big bad to show up… well, maybe it was a sign that things were turning for the better.

“Yeah, Cas,” he said with a fond smile. “C’mon, let’s talk.”

Maybe, just maybe, he could take a leap of faith for once.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not 100% sure, but this may be the start of a short series of oneshots. Because I have ideas revolving more around the archangels, and a bit more concrete, overt Destiel. We'll see how RL treats me for the coming week. ^^"


End file.
